9 December 2008

Orange Coconut Cake



This is just a short post to give the orange coconut cake recipe. I'm really busy today and need to go to work early. We're in the midst of our Christmas preparations and there is so much to do! We also have a BBQ lunch with our Flexischool students so the hour I have for that I'll replace with going in an hour early.

I was interested to read Laurie from Amish Country's comment about her relatives coming to Australia in their winter. At the moment, I'm working with a Canadian man who comes to Australia every winter. While he's here, he does voluntary work and this year he is with us. It must be quite a change for him but he's fitting in well and is a pleasure to work with.

And so, the cake. Many of you know that I don't follow recipes, I use them as a starting guide. I have tweaked this recipe quite a bit and now it's a flavour-packed moist orange cake that every one loves. It's the addition of the coconut cream that makes the difference. If you've only made cakes from a box before, this is a good recipe to add to your cook from scratch recipes. It's easy and, apart from pre-soaking the coconut, fairly quick.

Ingredients
  • ¾ cup caster sugar
  • 125 grams butter (¼ lb), room temp
  • 3 teaspoons finely grated orange rind
  • 3 eggs, room temp
  • 1 cup coconut cream - you can buy this at Aldi, most supermarkets or any Asian store
  • 1 ½ cups self-raising flour, sifted OR 1 ½ cups plain (all purpose) flour with 3 teaspoons of baking powder added
  • 1 ½ cups desiccated (shredded unsweetened) coconut
  • 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice
Method
  1. Place the coconut, the orange juice and the coconut cream in a bowl and let it sit for an hour.
  2. Preheat oven to 160°C.
  3. Place sugar, butter and orange rind in a large bowl, and beat until light and creamy, this will take about 4 or 5 minutes.
  4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each one.
  5. Fold flour and coconut mixture into the butter mix. When it's combined, place it in a round greased and lined cake pan.
  6. Cook for 50 minutes or until , when tested with a skewer, it comes out clean.
When it's cold, sprinkle with icing sugar (confectioner's sugar) or you could make the same icing I made.

Pour the juice of a fresh orange into a small saucepan and put on the stove. Allow to come to the boil and let it simmer. Don't walk away because OJ has a lot of sugar and it will burn. Allow it to reduce to half its volume, then take it off the heat, add a teaspoon of butter and let it cool. When it's cool, add enough icing sugar to make a frosting the consistency you would like and pour it over the cake.

OR - this is much simpler: add the juice of an orange to 1 cup of icing sugar and pour that over the cake.

See you tomorrow!


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20 comments

  1. Is coconut cream the same thing as coconut milk?

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  2. Hi again Rhonda, thanks for the cake recipe and thanks for adding the non-selfraising flour instructions for the North Americans! We can get the self-raising flour here in Alberta no but only in very expensive, wee bags and that is definitely not in sync with what your blog is about and how I am trying to guide my own life.

    I left a suggestion for a swap idea on your other posting but will repeat it here in case you don't read the other (pushy aren't I ). :-)

    How about a shopping bag swap - they can be made so many different ways that everyone could participate...just a thought.

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  3. Anon, coconut milk is thinner than the coconut cream but you could use it if that is what you have in your pantry.

    Hi Janet, I don't organise the swaps now, I don't have the time. My friend Sharon does them. We have had a shopping tote swap, also cloth napkins, pincushions and needlebooks, heirloom seeds and tea cosies.

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  4. Good morning Rhonda,

    I'll be trying that recipe, looks delicious. I hope your day runs smoothly. Catch you tomorrow.

    Blessings Gail

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  5. Thank you so much, Rhonda Jean! I love fruity cakes. Although, I'll have to replace the coconut cream with something else, because I don't think I can get it here in the Czech Republic. Do you think yoghurt or cream would work?

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  6. hana, yes yoghurt or sour cream would work perfectly.

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  7. Oh, I'm so glad you gave the recipe. It looks delicious. I'm not sure what coconut cream is either. I've never heard of it.

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  8. Oh, good, just read your other answers! Yogurt and sour cream I have! Thank you.

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  9. yum, thanks for sharing the recipe...baking weekend coming up!

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  10. That recipe sounds yummy!
    Thanks for the mention, Rhonda. I wish I could come to Australia myself. It has been a dream of mine since I was a child.
    Just to note, here in Pennsylvania, where I live, you can get coconut creme in either the gourmet section or ethnic section of your grocery store (if they have one). I also think it possible to get it at a "health food" shoppe. (The reason I say this is because I used to work in management of a local grocery store)

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  11. Thank you for the recipe, I will definitely try it. It seems that Aldi in Australia has quite a different range of food from Aldi in Germany, I have never seen things like coconut cream or the curry paste you mentioned a while ago.
    Hilde

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  12. That cake sounds delicious! I will definitely give it a try. Thanks for the recipe.

    Christine

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  13. I'm glad I'm not the only one who wondered about the coconut cream. :o) I'll have to try this one with sour cream. Mmm I think I say this about pretty much every cake recipe you post. :o)

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  14. mmmm - sounds and looks delicious!

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  15. Hello Rhonda,

    I made a double batch of your cake yesterday and topped them with the simple version of orange icing last night. I couldn't help taste testing a slice before I went to bed. It's delicious, and not too sweet. I'm adding your recipe to my best-recipes folder.

    Love Kendall
    Rockhampton QLD

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  16. Thank you for the recipe Rhonda! It looked so good that I made it yesterday. The cake was SO moist and yummy. My icing however didn't look anything like yours. It was clear and was tasting like confectioners sugar so I stopped adding more ... but it was runny. What did I do wrong. Boo-hoo. Still, it was scrumptious. You can see the pic of the cake and my credit and link to you on my blog. www.sandstone-sandstone.blogspot.com -Sandy

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  17. Tried this recipe for the first time this afternoon - and I've just cut out a tiny bit to test - delicious!!

    Many thanks Rhonda - and thanks for your inspirational blog, which I read every day.

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  18. This recipe looks seriously nommy, and so do most of your recipes! Discovered you just now through searching for an orange cake which would use up some coconut cream I have and found everyone else looking for substitutes. We use it a lot in soups instead of normal cream.

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